Finishing Touches

I am always fascinated by the sudden transformation finishes can make to a construction site.

Doshisha is currently in that process of "getting finished"; covering up services, structure, like how our skin covers up our organs and bones.

Here are some photos from site as per yesterday FEB 23:

flooring to Student Lounge side, setting out from facade fins

ceiling to Chapel side (getting speakers and lighting installed too)

junction of inside and outside - water feature to outside getting tiled at the same time

tiling inside wetareas; setting out the 50mm x 50mm mosaic was not fun....

beautiful stones for the water feature

wall panelling to rear of Chapel hall

100 days of 五穀 Wu-Gu

We have obtained Occupational Certificate for Wu-Gu on the 100th day from the start of construction.

It was opened to family and friends on FEB 15, one fine Sunday afternoon.

Soft opening to public was on FEB 17 evening.

Despite the obstacles, the space was filled with a crisp joy.

It was one of those moments - the "never been happier for not giving up" moment.

Here are some photos from Sunday FEB 15 (photo: Eugene Wu)

Followed by slideshows of the construction.

 the facade.  It is completely openable to create a seamless inside-outside connection during the day, however with the current footpath condition (which is to be paved in a couple of months time) the client is shying off the idea for the time being.

 interesting how tables chairs and tableware can make such a big change in impression...
it was suddenly a restaurant whilst less than 24 hours ago it was a construction site.

  looking back at the entry

 the solid looking facade catches glimpses of street activity.
It was designed to screen out headlights from all directions at night and maintain a level of inside-outside visual connection, to ensure comfort of the patrons.

such lovely festivity, just in time for Chinese New Year celebrations!

on the mezzanine

Love the sense of space and volume

ground level

mezzanine level

Chapel Side is catching up!

Whilst the Student Lounge Side at Doshisha Chapel Complex is frantically getting ready for the academic staff to move in prior to the official opening to public, the Chapel Side is also steaming to catch up.

This is where we are as per yesterday 2015 FEB 10:

Student Lounge Side - ceiling all installed, marble rear feature wall completed.
Love the delicacy of the ceiling (if I may say so myself...).

Student Lounge Side - academic office starting to take shape

Chapel Side - ceiling half way through installation
Love how the natural light is interacting with the building volumes (IF I may say so myself!!)

Chapel Side - mezzanine to rear of Chapel Hall where the organ will be installed

Chapel Side - inside one of the meeting rooms across from the Chapel Hall mezzanine
Across the roof of entry one can gain visual connection to inside of the Chapel Hall

Chapel Side - entry
Wall tiling completed now moving onto floor tiling; the skylight brings natural light into the darkest spot of the entire complex and highlights the intersection of circulation

Last stretch for Wu-Gu! 加油! がんばれー!

For many many many unforeseeable reasons beyond our control, Wu-Gu construction is suffering from extended delay (you do not have a whole day to read and I do not have a whole day to whinge, let's not get into it..).  Now we are seeing light at end of tunnel, at last.

Some lessons I have learnt to date are:
1.
Contract is a formal documentation of human relationships.
Contractual arrangements between all parties (including and definitely not limiting to leasing contract between client and his/ her landlord) have direct impact on people's mentality, which directly influence people's attitude, performance and reliability.
2.
Amount of time spent =/= quality of outcome.
3.
(reinforced) Persistence.

Anyway, let's do look at some nice site photos!

The hoarding came down, this was the first time I have looked at the facade in its entirety.
Was so exciting!

Close up of facade in process.  The window mullions are made of 8mm steel flatbar, designed to be very refined to minimise gaps between facade joinery boxes.

Majority of the facade came flarpacked and was built off-site, they give more depth to the facade.

strong linearity inside the shop

most of internal spatial divisions were also built up by the flatpacked boxes

lights up;
modularity of the boxes extending from inside to the outside is visible; the entire shop was designed with the base unit of the box.

lighting effect from afar

Flatpacking Wu-Gu

One very large aspect of this project is the extensive use of off-site assembly.

Majority of the fitout was flatpacked and assembled off-site, to work in parallel with the site work in order to reduce amount of time required.

The entire off-site process has taken almost as long as the site work to date, which means, without off-site construction planned into the design, the construction time could have been doubled.

Snap shots at the off-site "assembly line" over the past weeks...

arrived all flatpacked...these are only half of the components.

painting of the components before assemblage

...drying...

one of the first few units assembled

colour matching with the sample (the little piece of plywood) - this is a pretty good match. We did have some difficulty with application method, but we ended up with a good result

full-on!!
there are a few types of boxes, some are better painted after assemblage, some are better painted prior

call in the helpers!
the system was designed to minimise skilled labour requirement, so when necessary we can get more people to help

neatly packed!
there are still more to go, but probably 90% done!

Meudon photoshoot

The Meudon apartment renovation has finally completed!

Being within a building built in 1920, there were myriads of unforeseeable issues we had to confront and resolve as they surface from behind almost century-old plasters and floor boards, but it was nice to say, the calmness of the space at the end of the chaos was well worth the pain!

The Meudon apartment project is largely about spatial layering / sense of space beyond space - how that creates ambiguity in boundary hence brings comfort to people being inside the space.  Need to think of a succinct expression to explain *mental note*.

We organised for photoshoot on DEC 05, early 7am start to capture morning sun.
The entire week was forecasted to thunderstorm, luckily we did get some good sun on the day!

I found photographer Robert Walsh for the shoot this time for the sense of extension / expanse of space in his work. It is important to capture the spatial layering we sense physically in the photos, and I very much look forward to seeing the result.

This time we have also called in our friend Justin Fox from Australian Infront (huge "Thank you!") to capture some "behind the scene" photos - now that was a first for us!  Check out his blog entry HERE.

In the mean time, here are some photos from Justin on the day:

 the alcove in joinery was designed for this particular artwork
we designed the concrete/ plywood dining table in foreground with Anomaly (more photos on it later)

 we were so lucky with the weather, look at the light!

me modelling in shoot.. reading up on Australian convicts (book burrowed from the client)

Yoshi modelling in shoot.. he was back in Sydney for 1 week after 4 months in Japan on Doshisha

Robert checking lighting level

very picturesque indeed

people have different ways of working and we just have to find out how we can best work together.

 modern space vs heritage space

the client also modelling in shoot..  

I was very happy about the progress!
sofa + ottoman courtesy of Tom Fereday

Day 67 - Almost There

Heading towards the last day of Meudon construction tomorrow.

framed good-old-time...

"new" held within "old"

a view to be remembered

Day 51 - Cheerfulness

Jumping over quite a few hurdles here we have arrived at Day 51 of Meudon site.
There is a silent cheerfulness in the air now that construction dusts have all settled at last, light and air freely circulate in the spacious apartment, finally the space is taking the shape of what we have originally imagined.

This is probably one of those exciting moments of all things - almost there but not quite, full of anticipation and hope.. of course this excitement is only to be surpassed by the even-more-exciting project completion!